Question about this game and it's account security

So after finally watching some beta videos on this game and reading a bunch of info I'm super excited for it. My only concern is, what are they doing security wise to protect GW2 accounts? I've seen nothing about an authenticator and I've read about NCsoft's security issues in the past. Did they make any changes lately?

Im just glad they are not using NCsoft master accounts anymore that was horriable. I still cannot gain access to my NCsoft master account after all these years. so I hope i never forget my GW1 usr name and password or im screwed. I also really hope thier support is better then Guildwars 1. the ingame support was None and the outside account support was minimul. Going from having my account hacked and havign everything put back on in less then 6 hrs by blizzzard in WoW has left me with a thought that if blizzard can offer fantastic ingame / ougame support then so should ANET, lets hope they deliver this time around.

- Don't share your account information with anyone.
- Have a good virus protector and scan your PC weekly, or daily.
- Don't share your account information with anyone.
- Don't visit unofficial GW2 websites.
- Don't share you account information with anyone.
- Don't fall for the fake ArenaNet e-mails. ArenaNet will NEVER ask you for your password. Why would they? They have it in their database.
- And lastly, don't share your account information with anyone.. Not even if they are your closest friends and family.

So after finally watching some beta videos on this game and reading a bunch of info I'm super excited for it. My only concern is, what are they doing security wise to protect GW2 accounts? I've seen nothing about an authenticator and I've read about NCsoft's security issues in the past. Did they make any changes lately?

They haven't given us any info on how they'll handle the security yet, but I'm sure it'll prove effective. Even NCSoft didn't fuck that up.

---------- Post added 2012-04-23 at 02:34 PM ----------

Originally Posted by AdrianCC100

Want to keep your account safe?

- Don't share your account information with anyone.
- Have a good virus protector and scan your PC weekly, or daily.
- Don't share your account information with anyone.
- Don't visit unofficial GW2 websites.
- Don't share you account information with anyone.
- Don't fall for the fake ArenaNet e-mails. ArenaNet will NEVER ask you for your password. Why would they? They have it in their database.
- And lastly, don't share your account information with anyone.. Not even if they are your closest friends and family.

Common sense sure is hard. I still laugh about how my dad fell for one of those e-mails with his WoW account.

I hope you haven't forgotten my role in this little story. I'm the leading man. You know what they say about the leading man? He never dies.

If you give in to your impulses in this world, the price is that it changes your personality in the real world. The player and character are one and the same.

- Don't share your account information with anyone.
- Have a good virus protector and scan your PC weekly, or daily.
- Don't share your account information with anyone.
- Don't visit unofficial GW2 websites.
- Don't share you account information with anyone.
- Don't fall for the fake ArenaNet e-mails. ArenaNet will NEVER ask you for your password. Why would they? They have it in their database.
- And lastly, don't share your account information with anyone.. Not even if they are your closest friends and family.

Yup; I've never gotten hacked on WoW in 8 years and I've also never changed my password! Commen sense goes a long way!

---------- Post added 2012-04-23 at 01:50 PM ----------

Originally Posted by 2NE1

Wait so how exactly does the pre-purchase work then? We don't need a ncsoft master account? Do we purchase it through arenanet then? :/

Yup just go to www.guildwars2.com and hit pre-purchase, if you buy it they will ask if you have an account; if you don't go make one!

I wouldn't know if it's needed. I don't believe I was asked for my master account, although I think I linked it to my old Guild Wars account that I've never really used. I'm sure at some point it will be connected to the NCSoft master account.

I hope you haven't forgotten my role in this little story. I'm the leading man. You know what they say about the leading man? He never dies.

If you give in to your impulses in this world, the price is that it changes your personality in the real world. The player and character are one and the same.

Every game and their mom almost got secret question for your account security and me and my friends all got a bit confused no secret question was needed to be created for GW2 account. Anyone know if this is something they plan to add on launch or how do they reason about this, do they think it's fine as it is or?

Yeah, the other day I was bored while WoW was down for maintenance, so I thought i'd install GW1 for a bit of nostalgia (my friends and I used to play a fair bit when it was released).

I install, patch etc etc. Get to the login screen and it asks me for a Master Account (Which I never created), and to gain access to my account I needed to remember the name of one of my characters on said account (going back 3-4 years... good luck with that). The only way to gain access to it apart from that was contacting customer support for a reset (they didn't even have it automated). I put in a request and never heard back about it.

Was a really dissapointing experience to be honest, hopefully they scrap the scheme in GW2.

- Don't share your account information with anyone.
- Have a good virus protector and scan your PC weekly, or daily.
- Don't share your account information with anyone.
- Don't visit unofficial GW2 websites.
- Don't share you account information with anyone.
- Don't fall for the fake ArenaNet e-mails. ArenaNet will NEVER ask you for your password. Why would they? They have it in their database.
- And lastly, don't share your account information with anyone.. Not even if they are your closest friends and family.

Those are lovely. Too bad they aren't enough.
Most people don't lose their account to giving their account info, Most people lose it to running Java, Missing a windows update, Or not updating their Firewall/Virus Scan on a regular basis(read:hourly).

Not visiting unofficial GW2 website.. I like that one, Especially coming from a forum on an unofficial WoW website.

Want to keep your account safe?
1) Delete Internet Explorer off your desktop, and never, EVER open it again.
2) Get firefox
3) set so Java must request your permission to open. ONLY allow Java to run on websites you KNOW are safe.
4) Get Adblocker Plus. More people lose their accounts to Java and Ads than any other 3rd party way.
5) Get an automatically-updating virus scan, CCleaner, Spybot Search and Destroy, and a solid Firewall.
6) Run CCleaner after every virus scan(specifically clean your registry), and spybot Search and Destroy every night.
7) Update windows AS Updates come.
8) Never open an E-mail from someone you don't know. This should be common knowledge, but still...

This is how to keep your computer safe(and with Firefox+Adblocker plus, no more ads! Anywhere! Watch youtube uninterrupted. )

If you're hyper-paranoid, or have children or just aren't very computer savvy - Make a Secondary account with NO admin access. Use this for your general surfing.

- Don't share your account information with anyone.
- Have a good virus protector and scan your PC weekly, or daily.
- Don't share your account information with anyone.
- Don't visit unofficial GW2 websites.
- Don't share you account information with anyone.
- Don't fall for the fake ArenaNet e-mails. ArenaNet will NEVER ask you for your password. Why would they? They have it in their database.
- And lastly, don't share your account information with anyone.. Not even if they are your closest friends and family.

This sums everything up nicely, all though i think its missing the most important part

I remember a picture posted here a while back that was of either an NCSoft banner or an Arenanet banner and it had a silhouette of what looked like an authenticator on it. This might suggest that they plan on having authenticators.

You could always just run your hand all over your keyboard, and then copy/paste that into a document, then just copy/paste into the game. It's what I've always done for pretty much everything, and it has never failed me.

Are Guild Wars 2 passwords case sensitive? Still can't believe Blizzards isn't even after all these years.

Originally Posted by Fenlnir

You could always just run your hand all over your keyboard, and then copy/paste that into a document, then just copy/paste into the game. It's what I've always done for pretty much everything, and it has never failed me.

So if your hard drive gets corrupted you just lost all your passwords. There are better ways to create safe passwords that are easy to remember. This also doesn't protect against any sort of key logger.